Train smarter to prevent injuries! - Part 1

TRAIN SMARTER, RECOVER FASTER! How to build a strong, resilient + adaptable body!

There is nothing worse than an injury! They stop us from training, kill our mojo, affect our mental health and downright suck! This month we will be sharing education with our Fine Pines and community on how to prevent the most common 3 injuries/niggles we’ve seen throughout our combined 20+ years as coaches! First up, we will be looking at lower back pain!

Lower Back Pain

Lower back pain is one of the most common injuries we see as coaches and let’s be real, it sucks! Having back pain can be so limiting as it restricts everyday movements like bending over, carrying children or groceries, hanging clothes out and really messes with our workout mojo! But with the right knowledge it can be easily avoided and managed. The first place to start is with if you experience lower back pain is an effective warm up so your body has time to loosen and increase blood flow to working muscles. (So no missing warm up if you fall in this camp. We would even recoomend getting there 5 mins earlier to do some extra mobility)

Some good dynamic stretches for warming up the lower back include cat and cow pose, thread the needle and scorpion stretch. Glute bridges are also great as they warm up the lower back while also stimulating the glute muscles. This prevents strain on the back during lower body exercises as the correct muscles are doing the work!

Next up its super important to use your core muscles during ALL exercises. You probably hear us coaches banging on about switching your core on, but we promise it’s for a good reason! Having a strong core helps prevent injury as it will keep you in the correct posture and means the lower back isn’t being used in exercises it shouldn’t such as burpees! Here are some simple cues that will not only help you effectively switch your core on but also help prevent lower back injury during core focussed exercises:

  • Tilt your pelvis anteriorly and draw your belly button into your spine when doing exercises laying on your back e.g. leg lowers

  • Only go to the range that allows you to keep your back flat against the ground 

  • When on your hands and knees draw your belly button in to lift tummy up and prevent lower back caving in, set yourself up with knees under hips and hands under shoulders e.g. plank variations, hovers

There are a few exercises where we see back niggles and injuries more commonly occurring such as deadlifts and burpees. Deadlifts are used predominantly for strengthening the hamstrings and glutes, however it is common for people to start to feel strain in their lower back when performed incorrectly. Here are a few suggestions to help you develop a solid deadlift technique:

  • Keep a neutral spine by shifting gaze to the floor as you hinge forward. Keeping the gaze forward as we lower the weight down puts our spine out of a neutral position and encourages an arch in the lower back which we don’t want!

  • Send your hips back to lower the weight rather then rounding your shoulders to get closer to the ground as this puts the spine out of a neutral position 

  • Choose a weight suitable for you! Trying to lift something too heavy will cause you to round the shoulders which will lead you to recruit other muscle groups i.e. lower back extensors 

For a safer and more efficient burpee:

  • Lift tummy up to engage the core and prevent the hips from dropping at the bottom of the move. Dropping the hips will place strain on the lower back.

  • Ensure you’re squatting down to place hands on the ground rather then bending over.

  • Jump with soft knees so the lower body absorbs the impact rather then sending the force to the lower back.

Just like we start the session with dynamic stretches its also just as important to stretch post workout. Some great stretches that can be used as a cool down and to help manage pain include childs pose, sphinx pose and seated and supine trunk twists.

Brittany Ashman